Vladimir Blacke: The Companion of Steel
by yousaidwhat
Summary: Vladimir Blacke lived in Goodsprings for almost ten years, but when the Courier enters his town things begin to change. Will he join the Courier in his adventures across the wasteland? What awaits them under the hot unforgiving Mojave sun?
1. Home Sweet Home

Hello! I'd like to start by saying thank you for clicking here. If you haven't been directed here by Fantasizer650's story Damian: The Man with the Eye of Steel then you might want to read that first. Our stories tie together. Ok that is all you may start reading now.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Home sweet Home<strong>

Goodsprings. The small independent town far away from all the troubles of the Mojave, except, of course, for the unforgiving sun. That was how Vlad saw it. It was just ten years ago when he found Goodsprings and its welcoming inhabitants. They helped him get back on his feet and even gave him a home when he needed it. Goodsprings became the first place he could call home in a very long time.

Currently Vlad was walking away from the mouth of a cave just outside Goodsprings. Coyotes had been causing some trouble for some Prospectors who wanted to exchange their scavenged supplies for food, water, and caps. Unfortunately the Coyotes got to most of the Prospectors first, leaving Vlad to pick up where they left off. At least he would get a couple more caps in his pockets.

"I'll give you 500 for everything in that duffle bag." Chet said after examining the contents for an entire three minutes.

"You're breaking my balls, Chet…" Vlad answered. "That's worth at least 750 caps."

Chet rolled his eyes. "Don't know what to tell ya. I'm only going to pay 500."

"Can you at least trade me a few things on top of that?"

"No."

Vlad plucked the duffle bag from the ground. "Alright then I might as well go to Primm. They'll give me a much better deal."

"You're bluffing!" Chet scoffed.

"See you in a few hours." Vlad smiled as he turned to walk out the door.

Chet finally threw up his hands and sighed angrily. "Fine! 750 it is!"

"And a weapon repair kit." Vlad's eye twitched while he relived the moment when his 9mm pistol was gnawed by a Coyote.

"Fine then just take it and go!"

Vlad smiled at his small triumph while he took his caps and repair kit, then happily walked into the Prospector Saloon. "Trudy I would like a Sunset Sarsaparilla please!" he said gleefully while placing his pistol and repair kit in a booth.

"How many will you have?" she asked before drawing an ice cold bottle of the sarsaparilla from a refrigerator.

"We'll find out soon enough." He answered before setting to work on his pistol. Five bottles of Sunset Sarsaparilla later he managed to restore his pistol to top condition, he smiled as he set it on the table, admiring his handiwork. When he holstered his 9mm pistol the front door opened. Both Vlad and Trudy immediately knew who it was. Jacob Cobb walked in with an angry sneer on his face.

Jacob Cobb stopped and looked at Vlad, who glared at Cobb for a few moments. "Vladimir." Cobb nodded respectfully. Cobb turned his attention to Trudy. Then spoke again. "Where's Ringo?" he growled.

"This again?" Trudy rolled her eyes.

"I want to know where he is, we have some unfinished business."

"He's already gone. He flew out of here on a flying Deathclaw that shoots rainbows out of its ass." The door opened again, a man with an eye patch over his left eye walked inside.

Cobb growled at Trudy. "I've had enough screwing around! If you don't hand over Ringo, I'm going to come back with my friends with we'll burn this place to the ground!"

"Uh-huh that's nice but unless you're going to order something get out."

"You think I'm playing Trudy? I've got enough dynamite myself to blow this place to kingdom come!"

Vlad stood up and tapped Cobb on the shoulder. Once he turned around Vlad punched him in the jaw, Cobb fell. "Cobb, I've heard enough of your shit to last me three lifetimes and, since I don't plan on living that long, I suggest you get the hell out or I'll throw you out!"

Cobb's eyes became wide with fear; he scrambled up and ran out the front door. Trudy sighed in slight relief and when Vlad sat in a stool at the bar Trudy placed another bottle of Sunset Sarsaparilla in front of him. "This one is on the house."

Vlad grinned and opened the bottle, "Thank you very much Trudy." He glanced at the cap and his grin widened, a blue star was inside the cap. He placed the star bottle cap in his pocket. Thirty more to go, he thought. His mind began to wander about the treasure that the stars might unlock. It could be anything from money to weapons, maybe both. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a voice next to him.

"I'll have a scotch." said the one-eyed stranger.

"Coming right up," Trudy answered.

Once she placed it in front of him he nodded respectfully and took a long drink.

"Scotch? This early in the morning? It's not even eleven." Vlad said in slight confusion.

"I just woke up from a two day long dirt nap, I'm blind in one eye, and on top of that the Med-X that Doc Mitchel gave me wasn't powerful enough. I need something to dull the pain." he answered.

"So you're that courier the old bucket of bolts saved from the graveyard. Lucky bastard…" Vlad commented. The one eyed man was silent.

"So, what was that all about?" He asked nobody in particular.

"Cobb's been looking for a guy named Ringo. Ringo was part of a caravan that was passing by, turns out that the Powder Gangers killed his entire caravan and he was the only survivor. So we let him hide out in town until things cool down." Trudy said casually while she wiped the inside of a glass.

"We should at least take care of that asshole Cobb." Vlad said before drinking more Sunset Sarsaparilla.

"And that's when I say this again: I don't want the Powder Gangers killing everyone in the entire town because of this. Besides, even with you, Vlad, we just don't have enough firepower." Trudy answered.

"And that's when I say that if we just sit around with our thumbs in our asses, there won't be a town to defend anyway." Vlad retorted.

"And if I helped?" The stranger asked. Vlad and Trudy looked at him for a moment.

"We don't even know your name. However the extra help is appreciated." Trudy answered.

"Damian Winchester." the stranger answered. "My name is Damian Winchester."

"That's not dramatic at all." Vlad mumbled before drinking the rest of his Sunset Sarsaparilla.


	2. Preparations

**Chapter 2: Ghost town shootout**

"Sorry can't do it…" Easy Pete answered. Vlad asked for dynamite to use against the Powder Gangers, it seemed to be a good idea until Pete decided he didn't want to share.

"Come on Pete." Vlad sighed. "I know that you have to be careful with dynamite, when it comes down to it all you really do is just light it and toss it."

"Too dangerous, sorry." Pete shook his head.

"How about you give us a short lesson on how to use it? Well except for me since I've used dynamite before."

Pete scratched his chin for a moment then finally shook his head.

"What if I did the lesson?"

Pete laughed and shook his head again, "That's definitely not gonna happen."

"Oh come on!" Vlad fussed. "If anything, you owe me for saving your ass when that pack of hungry geckos attacked you last week."

Pete frowned. "Point taken, but I still don't think that giving you all dynamite is a good idea. You could blow an arm off, or leg, not to mention if you accidently drop it while you still have the dynamite lit."

Vlad sighed and threw his hands up in distress. "Ok I'll make a deal with you. How about you give the dynamite to people that you can trust to use, without blowing themselves out of their boots."

Pete scratched his chin and nodded in agreement. "Alright I can settle for that." He stood nodded respectfully at Vlad and walked off.

Vlad gave a satisfied nod and walked to his home on the other side of town. It was getting close to time where they would need to defend Goodsprings, and he needed to be prepared. His house stood not so far from the Prospector Saloon, complete with a small corn field and a trailer. He entered his house and immediately set off to work. He switched out his Merc Adventurer outfit for leather armor, and took a Service Rifle from a gun cabinet he had in the corner of his bedroom. He checked himself in the mirror for a moment and his reflection stared back at him, Honey colored hair, rough beard, and hazel eyes. A long scar stretched across his left cheek. Vlad thought for a moment before grabbing a pair of sunglasses and put them on; then he left his house and walked through the alley between the general store and the Prospector Saloon, a small crowd gathered in front of the prospector saloon. The Goodsprings militia. When he glanced to his right he noticed Damian and Chet unloading a few crates. Vlad raised an eyebrow in surprise, he didn't expect Damian to pull it off. 'More armor for us.' He thought with a smile.

"Chet, I thought you were untouchable when it came to bartering!" Vlad mocked.

Chet glared at Vlad for a moment before dropping a crate on Damian's toe. Damian swore under his breath before dropping the crate he was holding and, as Vlad would put it, started doing the dance of pain. "Fuck off…" Chet started. "I hope a storm from the Divide turns you to dust."

Vlad flinched at Damian's pain, and then turned to Chet. "That's just cruel…" he joked. "Come on you love me too much to say such a thing!"

Damian glanced at the two and elbowed Chet after finishing his 'dance'. "Come on and just finish helping."

"No, I'm done helping, you have the armor and the ammo. We're done here." He stormed into his store and slammed the door shut.

Vlad chuckled. "He gets so pissey when I'm around. It's probably because I've screwed him out of his money a few times."

Damian raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Chet will try to squeeze as much money as he can out of you. I was able to reverse that. Quite a few times too." Vlad said.

"Uh-huh..." Damian rubbed his throbbing toe. "Hey, let's go see if Doc will help us out."

"Good idea." Vlad nodded. They head off towards the good doctor's house while the townspeople outfit themselves with the leather armor and ammo.

When they reach the front gate of the house, Damian stops and glances to his left, Victor was just sitting in front of shack, doing nothing. "Hey Vlad, how about you go talk to Doc and I'll go see if Victor will help us out too?"

"That... is actually a good idea. That tin can has got to have some kind of firepower." Vlad replies and headed inside.

Doc Mitchells' house always made Vlad feel like he learned something when he left it, usually it was something along the lines of make sure the safety is on before screwing around with a gun, or make sure you throw the grenade FAR AWAY. This time he felt slightly disappointed, he wasn't getting his learning experience at the Doc's today.

"Well I'll be…" Mitchell was sitting in a chair in a corner reading a book and eating a fancy lad snack cake. "I never thought I'd see the day where Vladimir Blacke would walk in my office without any sort of injury!" he joked.

Vlad chuckled. "Yes, yes. It's a miracle of epic proportions!" he continued their joke.

After a moment of laughter Mitchell started. "What's on your mind? I doubt that you're here just to check on the old man."

"Sadly not. Some Powder Gangers are coming to attack the town, I was hoping that you could help us out."

Doc Mitchell scratched his head. "Yeah, I have a few supplies to spare. I can't help you defend Goodsprings because of my bum leg though." He sighed as he stood and walked to his medical office, "It seems to be the same everywhere I go, people just don't leave other people alone…" he grabbed a few Stimpacks and Med-X and put them in a bag.

"They're going to be carrying explosive too. Can you spare some things for that too?"

Mitchell frowned, "Well alright then, I can spare some extra." He sighed as he grabbed a few Doctor's bags and placed them in the same bag.

"Thanks Doc." Vlad said while picking up the bag. "I'll be sure to bring you a few caps your way after this, hopefully not through injuries."

"Be careful out there, don't want one of my best customers to die today." He attempted to joke.

Vlad grinned. "Don't need to worry about me, I'm good enough in a fight for a very small army."

He walked out, well he did learn something new, Mitchell had a bum leg. When Vlad stepped outside he saw Damian walking toward him. "He won't be able to fight because of his leg, he did give us enough medical supplies though. Get Ringo over to the Prospector, I got these." Both of them jogged off, Damian to the gas station were Ringo was hiding, Vlad to the prospector to distribute the supplies.

By the time he got there Sunny Smiles was starting to run to the gas station. "Are they getting here already?" Vlad asked.

Sunny nodded and continued to run. Vlad placed the supplies down then whistled loudly to get everyone's attention. "Eyes up front! Assholes are inbound!" he drew his Service Rifle and everyone else followed suit with their own weapons and prepared themselves for the battle to come.


	3. Ghost Town Shootout

Ghost Town Shootout

Vlad gazed to the road before him, the road that the Powder Gangers where supposed to come from. Everyone was nervous, only about ten people were able to protect Goodsprings and if Vlad was correct their militia would deal with the same amount or more. Their enemies were more experienced than most of the people of Goodsprings. A few moments later Damian, Sunny, Cheyenne, and Ringo joined the small militia. There was a heavy silence in the militia.

Damian was the first to break it. "How many did you say there were?"

"I counted twenty, including Cobb."

"Say what?!" Vlad gave a shocked look to Sunny and Damian, "They must really not like Ringo."

From behind the cart, they heard, "That's very reassuring..." from an anxious Ringo.

"So, counting you, Vlad, Trudy, Pete, Ringo, The townspeople, and me, there are ten of us versus twenty of them." Damian said to Sunny, "We are armed with, what, pistols, a couple rifles, two revolvers, and a handful dynamite that we all have to share against a variety of guns and melee weapons and enough dynamite combined to turn this town into a crater? Piece of cake."

Vlad turned to Damian, "You're that confident in us?"

"Are you not?" Damian questioned.

"Sorry if the odds aren't in our favor."

"Do you see them?" Damian asked Vlad.

"Haven't seen them yet." Vlad replied, "Sunny, you're the one with the binoculars, how close are they?"

Sunny pulled the binoculars that hung around her neck up to her eyes then answered. "They're walking to us, it might be a while."

Vlad sighed, "And now we wait… I don't particularly like waiting."

Time seemed to slow to a crawl while Vlad tried to assess their current situation, while Goodsprings may provide as a home field advantage the Powder Gangers were a lot stronger than they looked. They had dynamite, and knew how to use it. The Goodsprings settlers knew their way around a gun but would most likely blow their arm off if they didn't use their dynamite correctly. Before he knew it, the Powder Gangers were within shooting distance. Vlad who took the first shot at a powder ganger was about to light and throw a stick of dynamite. It exploded along with the powder ganger. The blast caused other Powder Gangers to fall on the ground. Most quickly got to their feet and began to take cover behind large rocks, picket fences, and others objects large enough to cover a person, but some were still too dazed.

While the gangers were recovering from the blast, Ringo, Damian, Vladimir, Pete, and Sunny all took out their dynamite and lit them. Vlad yelled, "THROW!" and everyone threw the dynamite at the grounded gangers. The dynamite landed next to the gangers whom all exploded into a mess of limbs.

Vlad laughed darkly. "What a mess."

The firefight began causing a sort of chaos that Vlad thought he left behind years before. It was terrifying, but at the same time it felt natural to him. For the first time in a long time he felt like he had a purpose again. He fired again and again and again, the first causing the head of one powder ganger to explode, the second crippling another's leg and the third went straight through the crippled man's heart. This was the point Victor finally arrived, taking his time rolling in from his shack. "Eat lead, varmints!" Victor yelled as he lit the gangers up with 9mm rounds from his machinegun-arm. He was able to kill two of them and wounded a third, but then Cobb and two of his men jumped out tossed lit dynamite at Victor. The dynamite bounced and rolled to Victor's wheel and he leaned forward to see the fuses rapidly shortening. Victor was only able to say, "Well, crap…" before he was blown ten feet high. He crashed to the ground, lower half practically gone with bits and pieces of wiring and metal fall down around the lifeless pile of metal.

"No!" Sunny almost ran to the dead robot if it wasn't for the gunfire flying around her.

Vlad growled, _Damn it! The tin can barely stood a chance! _He thought.

At this point both sides suffered heavy casualties, a third of the gangers were either dead or dying and almost half of the Goodsprings Settlers were the same. After several minutes only Vlad, Damian, Pete, Sunny, Ringo and Trudy were the only people left standing, and it wasn't looking good for them at all. But then he saw something out of the corner of their eye. After killing a psychotic powder ganger with a Machete Gladius, Damian started to force the Powder Ganger's back with his .44 Magnum, killing three gangers in seconds.

The tide of the battle turned. Damian lead a walking charge toward the remaining eight Powder Gangers, Vlad got out of cover and began giving support. A powder ganger attempted to shoot Damian with his pistol, he pulled the trigger but it was jammed. He yelled and started hitting his pistol in a feeble attempt to unjam it. Damian shot his kneecap which shattered once the bullet made contact.

The ganger's yells turned into screams as he fell and held his crippled knee, "You fucking ba-!" Vlad silenced the ganger with a bullet through his heart.

Damian aimed at a group of three gangers but they ran into cover before he could get a shot at them. He began giving suppressing fire, which gave the settlers just enough time to move up. Once Damian ran out of ammo the three Powder Gangers took action and jumped out of cover to attack, however they were blasted away by the Goodsprings militia.

There were four Powder Gangers left, two of which charged at him from the front and another charged from behind. Vlad aimed carefully and fired his last two rounds at the ganger about to attack from behind. Then he turned his attention to Cobb who was deciding whether to run or stick by his last few men. He chose to run; Vlad gave chase while shoving a powder ganger out of his way.

Cobb took a glance behind himself, a move that would he would regret for the rest of his short life. Vlad was gaining ground, running faster than he had in a very long while. The second he was near Cobb he tackled him to the ground. Cobb tried to fight back, but Vlad got him pinned to the ground. Vlad drew his combat knife out of his boot and stabbed down, but Cobb grabbed his arms and started to push back.

"Just fucking die!" Vlad yelled. The instant he spoke a shot went off and blood flew out of Cobb's arms. And the knife buried itself in Cobb's throat.

Damian spun his Magnum around his finger before holstering it. "We did it Vlad. We took care of the Powder Gangers."

Vlad nodded in agreement, "Yes that's all nice and such but," he raised his combat knife at Damian, "tell me why you have a god damn legion machete."

Damian stood there for a minute, his smile fading, "I take it your against the Legion?"

"They killed my sister. So yeah, I want to kill every single fucking one of them!" Vlad shot back, tightening his grip on his knife. "You still haven't answered my question."

"I took this from the corpse of a Centurion who used it to kill my father." Damian replied coolly, "I plan on using it to kill Caesar."

Vlad raised his eyebrows, "Really?" he smiled as he sheathed his knife. "That makes me want to join you in killing those legion bitches."

Ringo and Sunny jogged to the two. Ringo was the first to speak, "I can't express how thankful I am that you helped me. This is all I can give right now but it's the least I can do." Ringo placed a small bag of caps in Damian's hand.

Damian nodded happily, "Happy to assist."

"Oh sure, leave out me and almost all of Goodsprings." Vlad joked.

Ringo laughed, "Don't worry, I won't forget about Goodsprings. I'll figure out a way to pay you all back somehow."

Sunny finally piped up. "Well I don't know about you guys but I think it's about time we celebrate." Damian smiled and nodded in agreement, Sunny glanced at Vladimir for a moment, "You gonna join?"

Vlad idly scratched his chin. "I never miss a celebration, but I'll be late for this one. I got something to do."

Sunny shrugged, "Alright, let's go then." She led Damian, Ringo, and a few others into the Prospector Saloon while Vlad stood in the middle of the road staring at the dead.

He sighed, "That was more entertaining than I'd admit." He said silently. Before he started walking to his home he heard gurgling, he turned. Cobb was still alive, Vlad raised an eyebrow. "The fuck?"

Cobb gurgled louder, and Vlad rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up…" Vlad unholstered his 9mm pistol and shot Cobb in the head, then began the short walk home.

The moment he reached his house the first thing he did was place his Service Rifle next to the door. He never cared about his Service Rifle, semi-automatic rifles were his least favorite type of weapon, but it did get the job done today. He walked to a cabinet in the corner of the room and grabbed a cabinet and picked up a revolver. The metal was carved, but the most notable carvings were words on the barrel which said "For honorable service against all tyrants". The handle showed a golden colored bear, however the bear was worn as if someone tried to remove it from the gun without harming the handle. It was the Ranger's Sequoia, however it didn't have any ammo, he took it and immediately walked outside.

Vlad entered the saloon, the party was well underway. All the Goodsprings settlers were either drunk or getting drunk. Vlad saw Sunny and Ringo kissing intensely, probably a one-time thing for both of them. Trudy was working behind the bar smiling while she started raking in the caps from her drunk customers. Damian sat at the end of the bar silently drinking whisky that was continuously getting paid for by many of the settlers, deep in thought. Vlad walked to the end of the bar, "Sorry to interrupt your philosophical meditation but I would like to talk to you." Vlad sat in the bar stool next to Damian.

Damian looked at Vlad. "What's up?"

Vlad spoke almost immediately, "I don't think I showed as much appreciation as I would have liked for helping us out, stabbing you in the neck isn't really the reward I'd expect from a stranger that needed assistance."

Damian chuckled, "Got that right."

Vlad continued, "And since you're planning to assassinate one of the most powerful assholes in the history of the Mojave you might need this." Vlad pulled out an engraved revolver and handed it to Damian. "It's called the Ranger Sequoia, only a handful of people own it, most of them are in the NCR. Think of this as a payment or an apology - whatever helps you sleep at night."

Damian's eye opened wide, "Deadly looking..."

Vlad nodded, "I've tried it on a Deathclaw before, well a dead one. I'd say its damn good for taking one of those down even though I never really tested that theory. And I really don't want to either."

Damian grinned at his comment. "I like revolvers, I find them very reliable."

"Oh and did I mention that I don't have any spare ammo for it?" he asked.

Damian frowned. "Fuck…"

Vlad and Damian heard the large thud next to them, they both looked over to see the Sunny and Ringo lying on the floor looking like they were wondering why the world had just flipped upside-down. Damian and Vlad both found this immensely entertaining and couldn't help to laugh. Sunny and Ringo quickly got to their feet and briskly walked out the front door, Sunny practically dragging Ringo.

"I totally want to see the 'morning after' of that situation." Damian said still laughing. Vlad tried to imagine what their faces would look like the next day. Just the thought of Sunny's confused face made him want to laugh his head off.

Vlad looked down the bar. "Hey Tru-!" Trudy slid a bottle of Sunset Sarsaparilla to him. Vlad grabbed it off the bar, "Thank you!"

After a while of drinking and small talk Damian finally was tired of drinking. "I think I'll need to find a place to sleep now…"

Vlad glanced at him. "I can help with that. I have an old trailer next to my house it has a bed in there. I don't use it so you can sleep in there tonight."

Damian nodded, "That'll do, thanks."

Vlad waved it off, "Yeah whatever. If you need anything, you can knock on the door but I'll probably be sleeping like a rock - so you might as well not try." He said as he stood up and walked out of the bar, Damian followed. He pointed the trailer out to Damian who went to sleep in it almost immediately. Vlad did the same in his own bed.


End file.
